Park and Kasi Expand on Perioperative Immunotherapy Updates in CRC

In Oncology Unplugged, a podcast series from MedNews Week, host Chandler Park, MD, a genitourinary medical oncologist at the Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, discusses advancements in the perioperative management of colorectal cancer (CRC) with Pashtoon Murtaza Kasi, MD, MS, of City of Hope in Duarte, California.

In this episode, Drs Park and Kasi delve into the evolving paradigm of perioperative immunotherapy for CRC, focusing on the study of neoadjuvant immunotherapy. Dr Kasi highlights recent data from studies such as the phase 2 NEST-1 trial (NCT05571293), which explored the use of neoadjuvant botensilimab plus balstilimab in patients with CRC.

Drs Park and Kasi also discuss the use of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a prognostic tool in CRC, referencing the observational BESPOKE CRC trial (NCT04264702) that showed the ctDNA-based detection of minimal residual disease was highly prognostic for risk of recurrence and response to adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with CRC.